The faltering start

Opening on 470 screens, more than twice as wide as any other new entry, Megamind was always going to be the weekend's top new entry. But takings of £2.83m, including £903,000 in previews, hardly represents a flying start for the latest effort from DreamWorks Animation.

Back in April, DreamWorks' How To Train Your Dragon began its run with £4.85m including previews of £2.12m, but at the time this was seen as a relatively weak start due to the challenge of competing for 3D screens with fellow new release Clash of the Titans. Dragon ended up with £17.34m. Monsters Vs Aliens debuted a year earlier with £4.35m including previews of £1.72m, on its way to a cume of £21.35m.

One challenge for Megamind is its arrival on screens so soon after Universal's Despicable Me, which rested on the similar premise of an evil mastermind. Despicable Me debuted with £3.66m – a great result given Universal's previous lack of pedigree in the animation field – and has now taken an impressive £19.45m.

DreamWorks Animation and its international distributor Paramount will take comfort from the fact that Disney saw a slow start a year ago with its 3D cartoon A Christmas Carol, picking up speed as the school holidays drew near. The film ended up with a reasonably healthy total of £20.34m, more than 10 times its debut of £1.92m.

The indie hit

When Gareth Edwards made his low-budget road movie/sci-fi romance Monsters, he probably didn't expect a UK opening anywhere close to the £349,000 it has actually grossed. But buzz had built up on the picture to such an extent that this figure, earned from 164 screens, comes as a moderate anticlimax. For a Mexico-set indie with an unknown cast, and a film that fits the drama mould more than it does a genre one, it's a decent number. But compared with, say, District 9 (debut of £2.29m from 447 screens), which similarly lacked marquee names but delivered more in the way of genre elements, it's way behind.

The flop

Stumbling right out of the gate is Disney's horse movie Secretariat, landing in 14th place with a shocking £41,000 from 233 screens, and a dire site average of £176. Given the lack of UK awareness of the titular racehorse, and a cast toplined by Diane Lane and John Malkovich, the surprise isn't so much its weak box office, but that Disney was able to get the film out with such a wide release. Clearly, the nation's multiplex chains were giving a valued partner the benefit of the doubt by booking the title so indulgently. But the wide berth has probably only hastened the unfortunate animal's exit to the knacker's yard.

Seven years ago, Seabiscuit similarly failed to match its US success in foreign territories. But a UK figure of £767,000 for its first weekend of wide play dwarves the opening salvo of Secretariat. Racing horse Seabiscuit may have likewise lacked name recognition outside the US, but the film had one marketable asset in Tobey Maguire, coming straight off Spider-Man.

The threepeat winner

To nobody's great surprise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 stayed at the top for the third weekend in a row, with takings of £3.74m. Over the past seven days, Hallows added nearly £7m to its total for cumulative box office of £39.15m. After three weekends, predecessor Half-Blood Prince stood at £40.54m, but that's a 19-day figure, as against 17 days for Hallows. In 2007, Order of the Phoenix stood at £37.88m after three weekends, an 18-day figure.

The big fallers

Of the three films falling out of the top 10, two really plummeted: Skyline and Machete. Aliens-invasion flick Skyline sunk to 19th place, with a fall in box office from the previous weekend of 78%. Machete fell to 21st position, with a decline in box office of 79%. If you have a yen to see either film in the cinema, don't dally.

The future

For the second week in a row, takings are down on the equivalent frame from 2009, in this instance by 14%. A year ago, highest new entry was relatively lowly animation Planet 51, but the chart was buoyed up by holdover titles Paranormal Activity, A Christmas Carol and The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Cinema owners are now hoping that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which arrives on Thursday, will arrest the franchise slump that occurred with second Narnia film Prince Caspian. They'll also be looking for decent coin from The Tourist, starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. One big grey cloud for cinemas is The X Factor final, which occupies four hours of primetime TV on Saturday and Sunday.